I must confess, I have become addicted to "American Pickers" and "Pawn Stars." It is, probably, the combination of historical artifacts and humor that does it for me. I am a sucker for comedy and history and these two shows really fulfill both.

Other shows that follow a similar trend are Auction Hunters, which follow folks that purchase abandoned storage units and scavenge for anyting of value, as well American Restoration which brings back to life historical, antique and vintage artifacts.

And speaking of Action Hunters, whenever I watch it I can't help but to think of my friend Roxy G. who is a storage auctioneer in Vegas. I can only imagine the sort of interesting (and occassionally bizarre) stuff she must come accross while doing business.

But I digress.

Like I said. I am fascinated by antique and vintage stuff and, at least in the case of American Pickers, it's very interesting to see how many of those objects are simply gathering dust or rotting in farms, warehouses, and random places. You have to wonder how many objects of historical significance may have been lost to abandonement, neglect, or sheer stupidity over time.

(And who collects paint and oil cans? Wow. Live and learn.)

In the case of American Pickers the owners of said objects are not stupid. They know exactly what they have (or most of them do). But I wonder what will happen to a lot of that stuff when those people die. Would the heirs know what to do with it? It's a lot of stuff. And I bet that a lot of it will end up being thrown away.

I am telling you. There is a reason why ancient city (or village) dumps are such a wonderful source for hidden treasure for archeologists. One person's garbage is indeed another person's treasure.

On the other hand, when I see all of those warehouses filled with random stuff collected by folks for decades, I have to wonder that if those same people had been approached by a different show, they would have probably ended in "Hoarders." That would have been a crying shame.

But hey, at least they are hoarding good stuff and preserving a bit of American history while they're at it. Let's hear it for the hoarders of history.

At any rate. With the success of American Pickers and Pawn Stars, a number of other shows have cropped up in other networks. For that matter, I attempted to watch "Pawn Queens" on TLC.

Man, it was as exciting as watching grass grow.

Add to that the fact that it followed the old TLC formula of "let's concentrate in the drama," and I didn't have the stomach to finish watching even episode one.

Yech.

This "drama" obsession has also killed "LA Ink" for me. Similarly, I could not stomach the new "NY Ink." As much as I love tattoos and the art that goes into it, it was simply not for me.

Some people love to watch train wrecks. Me? Those kinds of train wrecks bore me to death.

And if anyone suggests "Toddlers and Tiaras," I will run away screaming.

I'd rather watch the recap in "The Soup" on Friday nights and get all of the laughs without any of the angst.

Besides, those kids and their parents are creepy.

~Belfebe out.

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Comments

Storage Wars is my latest guilty pleasure. I love Barry, the collector. I think Darrell is funny. I'd want to smack Brandy. I really disliked Dave, until the episode with the trains, when he talked about his dad.... he's still a jerk, though.

Storage Wars is also a lot of fun. That's drama I can live with. Brandy can be a bit bitchy, but she's the brains of the outfit. She has more business sense than her husband. But it's a good mix of characters, and I love finding out what they discover in their units.

I also just stumbled across Storage Wars a few weeks ago. We don't like Barry much -- mostly from an incident where he bought a unit filled with stuff and the way he tossed stuff while looking for a collectible -- and he was breaking perfectly usable (and sellable) stuff to do it. Such a waste.

Siegfried did wonder if anything was ever seeded in these. Sometimes it just seems too good to be true.

Barry seems to be a somewhat spoiled and clueless guy with too much money to spend. Seems like a nice guy, and rather likeable, but his lack of knowledge and respect for the stuff that might be hidden in there is appalling.

I don't have cable or a DVR, but I still have a bit of a TV habit. Fortunately I'm cool with waiting until the shows I want to watch show up on iTunes, Netflix, or web sites. And if I really must watch something live, my gym has TVs on all the cardio machines.